Devils Dyke this afternoon.

After a flight at Ditchling this morning I ventured over to Devils Dyke where there were four others flying. Both sides of the hill was being used to great effect! The first time I`ve witnessed DS`ing..I thought I`d taken a good length of video only to find the SD card was full..oh well...sorry.

Ditchling Beacon (West Side) on a fffrreeeezzingg Dec day!

Wind was a blowing but up at Ditchling Beacon there was a little too much West in the wind to make the main bowl work without a long walk round to the other side. So, a decision was made to go and fly the slope to the West of the car park.

I was joined by Rob, Ian, Graham and Tim (happy Birthday Tim!!). Ian is a very old friend of mine from my gliding days.  He still manages to soar himself to the far flung parts on the country on good thermic days in his full sized LS7 glider. Welcome,  Ian to the blog, the old boys group and hopefully to our new club.

Ian flew his Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet. It looked a handful but after a first wobbly launch it was away and screaming around the sky (not always in full control) but it looked like a challenge. Here is a little video taken.



Rob had his Ninja and Graham had his Mijet. Unfortunately for Tim his glasses broke and he retired back to the warmth of the car. It was bitter up there but worth the effort. Just a pity more of you couldn't have made it up on the hill to enjoy the strong lift and friendly banter.

Flair English Electric Lightning PSS - She Flies !!

Here is a short video of my first flight of a very old Flair English Electric Lightning PSS glider from Ditchling Beacon earlier on today. She is basically naked with no covering other than the control surfaces. We wanted to see if she would fly before going to the effort to bring her back to her earlier glory. It flew like a dog but with a bit of TLC it could look like the dogs do-dars!

I'm loading up more video of todays exploits, should be up here soon.

Merry Christmas Everyone !

Happy Christmas to you all.................

Christmas Eve - Devils Dyke

Yesterday, Graham, Tim and I flew up at Devils Dyke. A brisk NW wind was blowing which looked like keeping the hang gliders at bay. The sky looked amazing with a cold front making its way towards us with an eruption of bubbly cumulus clouds forming over a sunshine bathed December skyline. For the first time in a very long time I left my phone behind so I couldn't capture the amazing vista for you all to share.
The lift was constant and strong and amazingly the area wasn't full of people. They must have all been out doing there final Christmas shopping. This made for an open sky, well for at least half an hour before the first hang gliders took to the air.
It was cold but not bad when you think how chilly NW winds usually are. We had a good couple of hours with Tim continuing to hone those skills with some very good circuits being performed. If you venture up there soon, watch out for the new fence (to keep the grazing sheep in) which runs from the corner of the car park al the way down the slope to the very edge.
Had a great time - Cheers Graham for suggesting the Dyke!

Mild Weather at Mill Hill

Rob, Tim and I met up at Mill Hill this Morning and we were greeted by 12 degrees, sunshine and good lift.

The hill was quiet and not full of the usual crowd thankfully. Another small issue meant that the English Electric Lightning didn't get into the air but we did plenty of other flying. Tim did especially well with a number of solo flights followed by good landings. Me and Rob played silly beggars and I had a great time. It was a good day to practice our landings with a stiff breeze blowing which meant you didn't want to go too far back on landing. Thankfully none of us did. We were joined by Les, a member of the Horsham club who I was introduced to at one of the recent Indoor meets. He was enjoying some combat down in the gulley with a number of foamy Wildthings.
Here Rob demonstrates his accurate landing skills as we had some dog walkers (yes walkers!!) that would not move from behind us and continued to exercise their dogs exactly where we wanted to land. No bloody consideration some people!!

I will be out as much as possible over the next few weeks. Maybe we might see some of you out and about enjoying some flying soon eh??????

Full of festive cheer!

Rob, Graham, David & I went flying at Itford Hill in a good Westerly blow. There was a good selection of models with Rob's Ninja, David had his first flights with his Middle Phase which flew very well up to the point the ground jumped up and grabbed it. Graham had his trusty Fusion and his new floppy wing electric glider that went very well. I had my M60 (fully loaded with ballast) and the old vintage Dragon Lady mouldy.

We all got plenty of flying in. Here is a video 'montage' of the days activities. Look out for the mid-air between my M60 and Rob's Ninja - All Robs fault of course!

Some mucking about with Graham trying to attack me with his Fusion which ended up with a great catch.

A cracking day out with the usual reprobates - thanks guys!

Itford Hill Tomorrow

Hi all
A few of us are meeting up at Itford Hill tomorrow for a few hours of sloping.
Meeting up at 10.00am usual spot in layby.
Good blow tomorrow, so wrap up and bring something heavy to fly.
I was hoping to bring along my latest purchase, a battered and bruised Flair English Electric Lightning PSS but we have just found out that the wing bolts are a strange size and we will need to source some new ones.
See pictures o her below.

The problem is we have no C of G or control throws, so we are working on the basis that it has flown and the RC gear is located in the same place. when its ready we will see if it flies first then if its still in one bit we will cover it and make it look pretty.
Well did only cost me £40 on eBay!!
Hope to see some of you up on the hill tomorrow.

Happy Christmas Guys

Hi All
Just a quick update from all of us on the Isle of Wight, first a big thanks to the guys  that paid us a visit a few months ago, we really did enjoy that day and were so lucky with  the weather, after a very bad forecast for that day,  it was  good to fly with new friends with different models and ideas, we are looking forward to 2015 when we hope to fly together again, we have a few more very good sites to show you.

I have now completed the Moth

It has now had a few flights, and I am loving it, just this last Sunday, myself, Tony and Bill flew up on Stenbury Down in a strong wind, with our  Moths, it was very exciting flying and a wonder that we did not have any mid-airs.

Bill also did fly his Typhoon that he got from you Paul, and really has got the hang of those "Crow Landings" and has had some fantastic fast flying up on Culver, we have had quite a few "South West Winds" so have been on that slope quite a lot of late.

Myself, Bill, and Paul who you met when you arrived last trip, have each got a M60 on the bench at various stages of completion, so watch for any updates when we have the first flights.

Hope your new club flying site is going well.

Thats just about all the news at the moment from us, so I would like to wish all at SSS a very Happy Christmas and a happy New Year.

Chris

50,000 Hits !!

Our blog has had over 50,000 page views to date.

I would like to thank all of you for the support and help to build our blog into what it is today. It has gone from strength to strength and has brought us many new friends and helped us to promote our slope soaring activities not only here in Sussex but to folks all around the world.

We are now an affiliated BMFA model flying club and look forward to welcoming new members as we move forward into 2015. Welcome on board Scott.

A special thanks to Rob and Graham and to our friends on the Isle of Wight who regularly blog post and keep providing us with interesting flying reports and video.

Thanks Guys ............

The Passing of a Dear Friend and Gentleman - Sid Parker

Hi all,
Today I attended the funeral of Sid Parker, a friend of myself, Paul and Tim and a late member of Mid Sussex Flyers. The funeral was held at Worth crematorium near Crawley and the chapel was so crowded it was amazing to see.
Sid had tributes from his daughter, his music friends and of course his flying friends from MSF.

Sid was a brilliant jazz pianist, a piano tuner, an aircraft engineer at BA, a great RC model builder and flier and above all an all-round good egg.

Sid was a gentleman in every respect of the word, he was always willing to help anyone and often repaired other people's models for them after a crash.

Sid, you will be sadly missed by all your friends.

Good bye my old friend.

Rob

Itford Hill 10th Dec 2014

HI All,
Graham U and I met up at Itford Hill today at12:30. Graham was heavily delayed on the way after having shredded a tyre on his limmo. Luckily he changed it and was able to make it to the hill on time. Neither of us had a camera - Graham's on board video had a flat battery , so I used my phone camera to no great good - see  pic of Graham's 'new' 100" glider below  ( out of focus) -

Either way, we had over an hour's flying. I took my Stargazer which flew really well, but on landing (very softly), decided to shed half the tail !
Graham kindly lent me the Fusion , so I did a quick 'bind' and I was away again with my old model which Graham has managed to make fly much better than I remember.

We had a good time, the lift was great and the wind was howling Westerly (ish), Graham landed his 100" model up the top of the hill after we both trekked up there to get a smoother landing area.

Just then I got a text from Captain Hampshire warning of rain on the way, so we left the hill and headed to the cars. Here you can see the rain West and North of us, but coming our way !

Maiden Flight today at Devils Dyke.

This is my latest glider using a Neville Mattingly Phoenix 100s g/f fuselage with an obeche veneered foam wing not perfect but my first attempt of hot wire cutting! The wing was originally built to suit the 100s rules (1970`s) so just plain. Have now reduced the dyhedral and turned it into a four servo wing giving it ailerons, flaps, camber and crow! I imagine the  flight performance has been transformed from just a rudder elevator thermal soarer to a fully controlled machine as it has never been flown in it`s original form..   Two more flights were made very successfully had not even thought of trying the motor.

Finally - A decent flying session for once

 Just the four of us today - Rob, Clint, Dave and myself met up at Itford Hill. Initially it was cloudy and even rained on us for a few minutes on arrival at the top but the cloud soon cleared and the wind picked up beautifully to give us a few hours of great sloping. Lots of flying, a few mid-airs and the occasional model lost in a tree but what a day! Crisp and bright and a pleasure to be out flying. Just a pity more people didn't come along and enjoy the flying.

 

 Some video to follow soon........

Sunday 7th December - Itford Hill

A group of us are heading over to Itford Hill tomorrow (Sunday) to go flying.
Wind looks good and strong so the lift should be the same.
12.00pm (Midday) meet at the car park (lay-by) at the bottom.
All welcome!

'Slope Soaring Sussex' is now a registered BMFA club

'Slope Soaring Sussex' is now a registered RC flying club fully affiliated with the BMFA.
I'm sure the members of our new club would like to join me in thanking Rob for his hard work and efforts in getting the club off the ground and us into the air under our new club banner - Cheers Rob !

We will hopefully soon take control of our new flat field flying site. This will give us all year round access to a large flying site for launching gliders and electric gliders. This will be a seven day a week access and only accessed by 'Slope Soaring Sussex' members and guests.
Membership is now open for those who have not already signed up to join. Please feel free to contact either myself or Rob for membership details. We will be changing the blog slightly to Include a members only area which will be used to communicate club Information, Constitution, Minutes and other club notes.
Please let me know what improvements / changes / additions that our club members would like to see made to the blog. This is after all a blog for us all to use and knowing what you guys want will make it a better site.
We will be having our first AGM shortly but until we take on responsibility for our new flying field we cant really tie down the last loose ends needed for the clubs constitution and rules. Rob will confirm to all of our new members the details, dates etc as soon as we can.
For those members that have taken out full memberships including taking the BMFA Insurance for 2015 please be aware that Rob has paid the BMFA in full (out of his own pocket) and we now need to reimburse him £32 for each member taking the Insurance.
I am very proud to be a part of this new club and look forward to us enjoying plenty of flying together in the future.

Get Off My F-ing Land!!

Met Rob and Tim up at Jack & Jill Windmills on a dull and very cold Monday lunchtime.

 

The lift wasn't great but you could stay up OK. I flew my M60, Rob had his Ninja and Time flew his Moth. We had been flying for twenty minutes or so and there was a JCB digger chugging up from  the bottom of the hill and then over to a fire off in the distance. Then he slowly made his way back along the top and was making his way the exit gate behind us. Tim was flying buddy with his Moth and unfortunately went a little bit too far back during landing and the model came down between the gate and the farmer in his digger. Looking at the landing I would have said the model was in front of the digger but it was one of those times when you think you are nearer than you actually are. The glider never actually touched, scratched, dented the 5 tonne digger nor did it hit the farmer but the farmer was not a happy chappy. I collected Tim's model from beside the digger and started apologising to him. He replied with F-ing this - F-ing that and finally F-ing get off my land!!!
After he had finished swearing at me I walked back to Tim and Rob and we all picked up our models and made our way back to the cars. Myself and Rob went over to again apologise (again!) to the farmer who continued moaning and suggested he should have run the model over to teach us a lesson.
May I strongly suggest you don't fly up at Jack & Jill Windmills in the future as this is private land and we do not have permission to fly from the field in front of the Windmills. I suppose its a valuable lesson to us all that we should have permission to fly from private land and just because it has a car park adjacent and that Slope Hunter lists it as a site to fly from, you do actually need the land owners permission before going flying.
Moving on -
Graham is going to try and get to Firle Beacon tomorrow if anyone is Interested in joining him - See the shout box..........

Northerlies for the next week.

Hi all.
Given the crap weather we have been experiencing over the last month there is a small glimmer of hope for some flying this week. We are due to have Northerly winds up to Saturday (apparently) so it could be an opportunity to get out and do some flying. We have various guys who can get out during the week and I think Rob has a list of all those who can get out, Terry, Graham U, Rob, Tim, Clint and probably more. Why not catch up together and get our and enjoy some flying together.
Rob and I are hoping to go up to Jack & Jill this morning for some flying.
Go on - give it a try, you might enjoy yourself.